I'm midway through my second month of prep for October, and I've hit my first real obstacle. I had about two weeks where I wasn't able to get much prep done, aside from reading some Super Prep and LR Bible stuff. I'm doing the LSAT Blog study plan, and after the first four weeks of LG introduction and practice, I felt really confident. It was just untimed work in PTs 29-38, but wrong answers were rare, and when they occured, it was usually a mistake I recognized quickly upon review, rather than a problem with the concepts. So fast-forward to now, where I'm trying to maintain LG abilities while focusing on LR. As the LSAT Blog study plan lays out, I've been trying to redo the 29-38 LG sections, but now timed. The problem is on every one, I just feel totally lost, and I can't figure out where to start or if I'm missing inferences. Its incredibly frustrating to the point of me losing my temper a few times. These are games I have already done before, and every time I try and do a timed section, I just feel like my brain switches off. I know its harder timed, and I guess I get anxious when I'm not doing anything and I know time is ticking away, but it seems like its more than that, since I can't even get into the games I know I can finish in around 5 minutes (some basic linear or grouping games). Does anyone have any tips, or anything that might help? Like I said, this is the first time in my self-prep I've just felt totally lost.

Yes, yes, the main difficulty in the Logic Games is just that: time. Since you know you get the concepts and have no problem doing the Games without the time, from now on you should always be aware of the time.

Since you say you are totally blanking when trying to do a whole timed section, try doing one game timed at a time. For example instead of doing a whole 35 minute game section with four games, try doing just one game and giving yourself 8 minutes and a half. After doing that a couple of times with confidence you can do 2 games with 17 minutes and then finally a while section timed. Not only will this help with anxiety, it will also help you get an internal body clock going so you know about how much time you should be spending on each game.

The key to games is to never stop. Even if you get stuck, you can't just go into panic mode. It definitely happens tho (as it did to me on the actual test!) So if you find yourself freaking and not taking in the rules as you should be, make a hypothetical. If you are not getting the initial inferences, plan B is to go through a couple hypotheticals and you will get the inferences by having to go through that. Good luck!

DonnaDraper wrote:Yes, yes, the main difficulty in the Logic Games is just that: time. Since you know you get the concepts and have no problem doing the Games without the time, from now on you should always be aware of the time.

Since you say you are totally blanking when trying to do a whole timed section, try doing one game timed at a time. For example instead of doing a whole 35 minute game section with four games, try doing just one game and giving yourself 8 minutes and a half. After doing that a couple of times with confidence you can do 2 games with 17 minutes and then finally a while section timed. Not only will this help with anxiety, it will also help you get an internal body clock going so you know about how much time you should be spending on each game.

The key to games is to never stop. Even if you get stuck, you can't just go into panic mode. It definitely happens tho (as it did to me on the actual test!) So if you find yourself freaking and not taking in the rules as you should be, make a hypothetical. If you are not getting the initial inferences, plan B is to go through a couple hypotheticals and you will get the inferences by having to go through that. Good luck!

Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely give that a shot. I'm just going to review the LG Bible a bit, I can't do another game today, I might blow a fuse.

This happens to me every time I take even a relatively short break from studying. Took three weeks off during papers/finals season and when I went back to do LGs it was almost like the first time I had ever looked at them, and I am just now getting back to the point where I can complete one under time.

DonnaDraper wrote:The key to games is to never stop. Even if you get stuck, you can't just go into panic mode. It definitely happens tho (as it did to me on the actual test!) So if you find yourself freaking and not taking in the rules as you should be, make a hypothetical. If you are not getting the initial inferences, plan B is to go through a couple hypotheticals and you will get the inferences by having to go through that. Good luck!

I completely agree with this. By far my worst section ever on LG was when I say a game, freaked out and just got up and started walking around for 5 minutes. I sat back down and decided to just go through and see what I could figure out and got a -11. This was my second test, which was basically a second diagnostic because I had done no studying, but I think I learned a pretty good lesson with it.

Also, try timing yourself on a whole section, but not giving yourself a time limit, simply seeing how long it takes. This will help with time and take the pressure away but still be productive.

Thanks for the additional responses, I'm in the process of implementing a few of these tricks. I guess I also just need to keep LG fresh in my mind, not going more than a few days without completing a section or a game at the least.